


If You Give A Cat A Cookie

by quicksilversquared



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, contains references to the Christmas episode so if you haven't watched that yet, cookie frosting, platonic Ladynoir hanging out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 04:51:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9107407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilversquared/pseuds/quicksilversquared
Summary: After the events of the Christmas Special, Marinette is more than a little worried about her partner. He clearly needs a little holiday cheer, and what better way to do that than to bake some Christmas cookies together?





	

Marinette was worried about her partner.

It was the holiday season, a cheerful and joyous time of year. It was a time to hang out with family and friends, and while it could be stressful and busy (heaven knew she had spent a lot of the lead-up to Christmas working in the bakery, trying to keep the back-up of customers from getting too large instead of relaxing during her first week of holiday break) it was still _fun._

But for whatever reason, Chat Noir had been spotted running around in the middle of the night, _before_ Bother Christmas even showed up. For whatever reason, he had Cataclysmed a pillar (which hadn't gotten repaired by her later Lucky Charm; there would _definitely_ be questions from the public later) and vanished.

And for whatever reason, he had avoided her question when she asked about it.

"It doesn't make _sense_ ," Marinette told Tikki the next day. They had slept in after the late meal at Adrien's house (she had gotten to sit across from him, which was _awesome_ , and their hands had brushed _so many times_ when they passed plates back and forth). "Why would he go out instead of being at home?"

"I don't know, Marinette," Tikki sighed, yawning widely. Tikki had stayed up for the entire dinner, mostly so Marinette could slip her bites of cookies and cakes. "Adrien didn't stay at home, either."

"Because he thought his father wasn't going to celebrate Christmas. Do you think Chat Noir didn't have a good Christmas with his family?" It was an odd thought, but if Marinette _really_ thought back, she could vaguely remember Chat Noir's comment about parents when they fought the Bubbler. Maybe he hadn't had a good holiday, but he had seemed fairly normal when they fought Bother Christmas. Maybe he had shook off his funk with his earlier run though the city, or maybe he had gotten things figured out with his family, or maybe he was just _really_ good at acting. That thought made her sad.

She had thought she knew her partner well (as well as one could without knowing names and details about each other's lives), but she hadn't ever suspected problems at home before. If there was really something going on, she had _completely_ missed it. Even if Chat Noir was a pro actor, she should have been able to spot something. But she hadn't.

And that made her feel _awful_.

"If I had known, I would have just invited him to our Christmas," Marinette told Tikki as they sat in her room, listening to per parents laughing downstairs as they made dinner. "Mama and Papa wouldn't have minded, I know that. They probably would try to feed him."

Tikki giggled. "Feed a stray once, and he'll keep on coming back."

"I really wouldn't mind. If Chat Noir doesn't have a good home life, then I'd rather have him hanging around than being alone." Chat Noir was good company (when he wasn't flirting in the middle of a fight or punning) and he was polite to a fault as well. Her parents probably would have loved having him over. It was too late to do that now, though.

"Maybe you can do something with him now," Tikki suggested, flying up to perch on Marinette's shoulder. "I know you can't get away for more than a short patrol today, but what about tomorrow? You can do a long patrol or hang out on the Eiffel Tower or go to the movies or make some cookies or something as a gift to him."

Marinette looked pensive. "A gift...cookies...hmm." Suddenly her face lit up. "Oh! I know! Tikki, you're a genius!"

 

* * *

 

Adrien wasn't sure what to expect from the next night's patrol. Ladybug had had to cut their Christmas Day patrol short due to family obligations (he was trying not to be too jealous; after all, he _had_ ended up having a fantastic Christmas Eve dinner with his father and most of his classmates and his father had at least made an effort to spend some time with him on Christmas Day), but she had asked if he could do an extended patrol the following night. He had agreed, of course (he would _never_ turn down the opportunity to spend some time with his lady), but she hadn't elaborated and he was a very curious cat.

 _Very_ curious.

"Stop tossing and turning," Plagg grumbled from his spot on Adrien's desk. "I can hear you and it's driving me crazy. I'll throw your hat at you."

Adrien sat up at that. "Don't you _dare_." He had gone out on a run after everyone had gone home after the Christmas Eve dinner was over and had found both the card in the snow (he could have _sworn_ he stuck it in his pocket) and the hat stranded halfway up the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug's Miraculous Cure must have fixed it as the dust from his Cataclysm fell, and for whatever reason it just left the hat where it fell instead of returning it to Santa's head. Adrien had reclaimed it with a grin (he had no idea where Santa had gone, or he might have given it back; after all, he _had_ given it to him as his only Christmas present) and kept it on his desk. The card had required a bit of attention with a hairdryer so that the paper would dry nicely, but it hadn't been too damaged by its time in the snow.

Adrien was _very_ glad he hadn't lost both. It was very sweet of Marinette to think of him and make a gift for him, and he had been disappointed to find that the card had fallen out of his pocket between when he opened the present and got back to the mansion.

"You'll find out whatever Ladybug has planned soon enough," Plagg said, sounding hugely grumpy. "So stop guessing and stop _tossing_ and go to sleep already."

Flopping back down on the bed, Adrien flashed an innocent grin at Plagg. He could always count on his kwami providing a grouchy distraction. "Sleeping."

"No, you're just being annoying."

Adrien let out a loud fake snore. He stopped when something soft and smelly hit the side of his face. "Ew! Don't throw cheese at me! That's _gross!_ "

 

* * *

 

Chat Noir had been waiting at their meeting place for just over five minutes when a snowball hit the middle of his back. He whirled around to see Ladybug standing further down the roof, a grin on her face and another snowball in her hands. He perked up immediately.

A snowball fight? He could get behind that. He hadn't been able to have any snowball fights for _years,_ and when he had, it was always with his mom and she _tossed_ the snowballs at him instead of throwing them. He had always wanted to join the rough-and-tumble snowball fights in the park, but he had never been allowed.

But no one was going to stop Chat Noir from lobbing a few snowballs.

For nearly twenty minutes, a fierce snowball fight raged over the rooftops. Ladybug and Chat Noir raced from roof to roof, dodging each other's' throws and scooping up snow to throw at each other. Civilians down below paused to glance up at the superheroes, and then had to duck away as snowballs went astray. Most of their throws didn't end up hitting since they had gotten so good at ducking and dodging during akuma fights, but it was so much _fun_.

"Okay, truce," Ladybug finally managed between giggles as they paused near the park. "We won't be able to finish the thing I had planned if we keep throwing snowballs at each other."

Chat Noir squashed the last snowball he had onto the top of Ladybug's head and rubbed it into her hair as she squealed a protest. Once he was satisfied with his work, he turned his attention back to her. "There's more?"

"Mmm-hmm."

" _Really?_ "

Ladybug laughed. "I wasn't planning on the snowball fight. You just looked so distracted and the snow was right there so I just-" She mimed throwing something. "I couldn't resist."

"We should do that more often. It was fun." There was snow in his hair and it was dripping into his face, but he didn't care. Getting to goof off with Ladybug was _amazing_ and he wanted to do it all the time. For those twenty minutes, he could forget that they didn't actually know who the other person was. They were just two friends, hanging out and having fun.

"We should." Ladybug was grinning too, even as she shook the melting snow out of her hair. "But come on, kitty, we need to hurry if we want to be able to finish the other thing before it's ridiculously late."

Curious, Chat Noir followed her.

Ladybug led them towards the collège, leaping across rooftops and over streets. They briefly landed on Marinette's snow-covered balcony (Chat couldn't help but wonder how his friend was doing) before landing on the roof of the school. Ladybug didn't stop, jumping easily down to the courtyard. As he followed, Chat Noir could hear the faint sound of holiday music drifting out from one of the classrooms.

...he was definitely puzzled.

"Come on!" Ladybug said, tugging at his hand. A silver key dangled from her other hand. "The surprise is further back."

"S-surprise?" Chat Noir asked as he stumbled along behind his partner. Had she maybe set up a movie, or maybe video games? Or were they doing something else?

Whatever it was, it was more than Chat Noir had ever expected. He _definitely_ had just fallen even more in love with her.

"Yeah, I set it up earlier before I met you. That's why I was running late, because it was taking longer than I expected." Ladybug continued down the hallway, heading towards the source of the faint music. They were headed past the normal classrooms that Chat Noir had been in, towards the staff room.

"Are we breaking and entering?" Chat Noir asked in amusement as Ladybug stopped in front of the staff room door. She inserted the key that she held (how she had kept track of that during their snowball fight, Chat Noir had no idea) and opened the door.

"No, we are not," Ladybug said somewhat indignantly, turning to flash an irritated look at him. He grinned innocently back. "I asked the principal if we could use the staff room kitchen, and he agreed since we've helped the collège so often. He was one that gave me the key and he let the janitor know so that no one would call the police to try to report a break-in."

"Cool, cool." Chat Noir followed Ladybug into the unfamiliar room. A pile of baking tools and ingredients covered one of the tables along one side of the room. They were familiar- flour, sugar, chocolate chips, eggs- and the cookie trays sitting nearby left no doubt about what Ladybug had planned.

"We're...making cookies?" Chat Noir managed, staring at the spread of bowls and measuring cups and ingredients. A warm feeling started spreading behind his ribs as he started to smile.

His Ladybug had set up all of this for _him._ She must have figured out that he hadn't had a great holiday (at least, not at first), and she had gone to all the trouble to get this ready so that he could at least have a few hours of holiday cheer- and Ladybug had probably given up time with her family so that she could do this, too.

He really couldn't help it- Chat Noir pounced on Ladybug with a hug, sweeping her off of her feet as he practically danced around the room. After a moment of surprise, she relaxed, wrapping her arms around him as well as she waited for him to set her back down on the ground.

"I haven't made cookies in ages," Chat Noir said happily once he completed his circuit of the kitchen. He was positive that he probably had the dopiest grin on his face, but he couldn't help it. He hadn't made cookies since before his mother vanished, and even then it was only an occasional thing. They had a professional chef to make cookies for them, after all. Still, the few times when they _did_ manage to sneak into the kitchens to bake were some of his happiest memories.

The cookies that they had made hadn't been very good (his mother was _awful_ at remembering to set a timer, and more than once they mixed up tablespoons and teaspoons when measuring out ingredients), but it had been the thought that counted.

"That's good," Ladybug replied as Chat Noir carefully set her back down on the ground. "I'm going to get the ovens preheating. You can pick out the recipe for the first batch of cookies."

Excited, Chat Noir nodded and bounded over to the things Ladybug had set out. There was a card for sugar cookies, one for chocolate chip cookies, a peanut-butter cookie recipe, and, to Chat Noir's great delight, a recipe for chocolate Sable cookies.

 _Yum_.

He snatched up that recipe first, of course, and scooted back over to the prep table Ladybug had set up. It felt _really_ strange being at school when no one else was, and it was equally strange being in the staff room. It felt kind of off-limits.

"Are you good at baking?" Chat Noir asked as Ladybug joined him in front of the line-up of ingredients. "Because I'm a mess at it, Bugaboo, and if both of us are awful maybe I should have picked one of the other recipes-"

"Oh, I'm _great_ at baking," Ladybug assured him with a grin. "I made sure that I could pull off all of those recipes before I brought them."

Yet another reason he absolutely _loved_ this girl. If the bravery and kindness and intelligence weren't enough to sell him, he _adored_ baked goods. Was there no end to Ladybug's amazingness?

(No. No, there was not.)

"Why did you choose the staff room for this?" Chat Noir asked as he measured out the dry ingredients (minus the sugar) and whisked them together. Next to him, Ladybug grated chilled chocolate onto waxed paper and made sure he measured out the correct amounts. "I'm sure the mayor would have let us use the hotel kitchens." It wasn't that the staff rooms were in terrible condition or anything...but they kind of were. The people who had renovated the rest of the building a few years back had apparently skipped straight over the staff room if the ancient stove and chipped paint on the cabinets and wall were any indication.

Ladybug wrinkled her nose and grated faster. "I know, but there's no way he wouldn't have told Chloe, and I didn't want to have to deal with her hanging over our shoulders for the entire time. And then the Ladyblogger's mom is head chef over there, and she would probably have been told-"

"And then we would have Alya there as well, probably filming us to put on the Ladyblog," Chat Noir finished. He hadn't thought about that, but it was very true. He didn't particularly want other people intruding on his Ladybug time, especially when they would be as intrusive as Chloe and Alya. It was much better to hang out in the somewhat outdated staff lounge.

They fell into silence as they worked. Ladybug took charge of the electric mixer ("Wouldn't want your claws getting in the way") to beat the butter and sugar together. Chat Noir added the egg as Ladybug mixed, then added the dry ingredients. Ladybug set the mixer aside to fold the grated chocolate in.

"This looks _delicious_ ," Chat Noir said happily as Ladybug divided the dough and gave him half to roll into a cylinder. It was crazy crumbly, which concerned him a bit, but Ladybug insisted that it was normal and that the dough was _supposed_ to be like that if it was going to turn out right. "I can see why you said we shouldn't have a snowball fight all night, since this needs to be refrigerated for an hour before baking."

"A lot of cookies need to be refrigerated first. I think it helps them cook properly and not get all flat." Ladybug made a face. It was _adorable_. "I really _should_ know why the dough needs to be refrigerated first, but I honestly have no clue."

Chat Noir's claws snagged in the parchment paper he was meant to be rolling around the cookie dough and he yelped. Ladybug, who had gotten her dough rolled perfectly in about ten seconds, snickered and came over to untangle him before he shredded the parchment paper to pieces. Her hands went over his own as she showed him how he was _supposed_ to be doing the wrapping. With her help, they had the second roll of dough in the fridge within a minute.

"Do you want to do sugar cookies next? We can frost those," Ladybug suggested as she shut the fridge. Chat Noir perked up.

"Frosting?"

Ladybug snorted and started putting away some of the ingredients they wouldn't need. "Why do I get the impression that you just want to eat the frosting?"

He gave her his best wounded look. "I would never." In front of her face, that was. He was fully planning on sneaking bites when Ladybug had her back turned and then licking the bowls before they got washed. It had been _far_ too long since he had gotten to eat frosting like a kid and if he and Ladybug were making some, he was _definitely_ snitching.

"These will have to chill, too," Ladybug commented as she passed Chat Noir new ingredients and a fresh bowl. "We'll make the frosting while we wait, and then deal with the Sable cookies first." She grinned. "And wash the dishes. I don't want to have to wash them _after_ we've finished everything. It'll be crazy late then."

Chat Noir watched as she made her way back over to the counter. "Won't the frosting melt on the hot cookies after we bake them?"

"We'll put the ones we're frosting in the fridge for a few minutes first." Ladybug tugged the beaters from the mixer and rinsed it off in the sink. Chat Noir pouted- he had rather wanted to taste the bits of dough that had gotten stuck on it. "If you can start sifting together the first ingredients together, that would be great. We can have it ready once the mixer's clean again."

"No problem." Chat Noir eagerly reached for the flour as he read over the recipe. It only took him a couple minutes to measure everything out directly into the sifter. He picked the sifter up, ready to shake everything into the bowl below, and was met with a faceful of flour. He spluttered, trying to wipe at his face with one hand without letting the sifter drift away from the bowl. There was a giggle from next to him as Ladybug caught on to his predicament. Chat Noir cracked open one cautious eye to give her a stink eye, which only made her giggle more.

"Normally that happens when you add dry ingredients to a mixer," Ladybug told him with a wide grin. She took the sifter and finished emptying it into the bowl before tossing the hard little clumps that remained in the sink and grinning at him. "Do you want to give that a go?"

"Uh, no thanks."

"You sure? You didn't manage to get your whole suit last time, I'd hate for it not to be uniform-"

Ladybug got cut off with a hip bump and a snort.

It took her two tries to put the mixer back together, but after that it didn't take long at all to cream the butter and sugar together. Chat Noir cracked the eggs and poured them in (carefully, so they wouldn't splash back on him or Ladybug), and then measured out vanilla to put in as well. Ladybug took over to pour the flour in (Chat Noir just _knew_ that if he tried, his face would get _completely_ covered in flour and it was questionable if he would _ever_ get Ladybug to stop laughing then; he suspected that he probably still had streaks of flour on his face and mask, since Ladybug was still snickering occasionally when she looked at him), and soon that dough was going in the fridge as well.

"Frosting time!" Chat Noir sang happily, before quickly smothering a yawn. He had slept in, but it _was_ starting to get a little late. He was going to be _very_ upset with himself if his Ladybug time (and his cookies) got cut short because he was _yawning_. He just needed a little sugar rush, that was all.

The frosting took almost no time to whip up. Ladybug seemed to have the recipe memorized (Chat Noir had to wonder how often she baked) and soon they had a batch ready and divided so they could mix in food coloring and drops of flavored extracts. Chat Noir had had the _best_ time deciding which colors and flavors should get paired while Ladybug made a dent on the dishes.

"I've always just used a knife to spread on frosting before," Chat Noir said as he mixed in the drops of food coloring and flavoring very, very carefully. Ladybug had given him _very_ specific instructions on how much to put in so that the flavor wouldn't get overpowering. "But are those piping bags?"

Ladybug looked pleased that he had figured out what the cream-colored cones were. "Yeah. It's easier to do fancy patterns with a piping bag than it is with a knife. I thought about using royal icing instead because it's more elegant, but it's not _quite_ as tasty, in my opinion, and it takes _hours_ to dry properly."

"More sugar is always better." His father (and his dietician) would no doubt have a fit if they knew, but Adrien wasn't going to let them find out. "Buttercream _definitely_ tastes way better. You have good taste, my Lady."

"I like to think so." Ladybug finished washing the last bowl and produced a towel from the pile of supplies she had brought. Chat Noir had to wonder where on earth she had gotten everything and more importantly, how she had gotten it all to the school. It probably had required _endless_ trips back and forth from-

From-

Well, wherever Ladybug came from. He might _suspect_ that it was close by his own home, but he really didn't have a whole lot of evidence to support that.

A sudden dab of something cool and damp on the tip of Chat Noir's noise brought him out of his thoughts. He went suddenly cross-eyed trying to figure out what it was, only to have Ladybug's snickers give her away. He looked over at his partner to see her trying to hide her smirk with one hand, while two of her fingers on her other hand had little dabs of white frosting on them.

 _Aha_. So she wanted to play it like that, did she? He could play that way, too. Grinning, Chat Noir scooped up a fingerful of the blue frosting and darted forward to try to get some on Ladybug's nose. She dodged him easily, and he chased her around the room. The holiday music, long since forgotten, was nearly inaudible as the superheroes raced around the room, doing their best to dodge cooking tools and furniture as they tried to get frosting on the other. Somehow, after several laps around the room, they ended up dancing together instead. Chat Noir shifted his hold, and soon they were doing a ridiculous exaggerated waltz around the teachers' lounge. Ladybug had a smear of blue across her cheek and part of her mask, and Chat Noir still had his nose covered in white.

"You are a _dork_ ," Ladybug managed as Chat Noir twirled her under his arm.

"A dork that's good at dancing." Because as ridiculous as they probably looked now, he was _very_ good at traditional dances. He had significantly more trouble with dancing to contemporary music, though. It seemed to involve a lot of bopping around in no particular pattern. "You're a very good dancer as well, my Lady."

Ladybug laughed. "Not really. You're just very good at leading." A beeping from the other side of the room caught their attention, and she slowed, pulling away from him. "We can get the first batch of cookies cut and in the oven now."

"We probably could have waited on the preheating," Chat Noir commented as they headed back across the lounge. Miraculously, they hadn't knocked anything over in their little frosting tussle. "Ovens don't normally take that long to heat up, do they?"

"They don't," Ladybug admitted as she pulled the cookie dough logs from the fridge. "But Mr. Damocles warned me that it takes a while to heat up all the way, since it's an old oven. I just wanted to make sure that we wouldn't be held up by it not preheating all the way."

"Fair enough." He had noticed before that the oven and accompanying stovetop looked _ancient,_ but he hadn't realized that old ovens could take longer to preheat. He was willing to bet that the teachers probably had Mylene's dad turn the oven on well before they got out for the lunch break so they could heat up their meals quickly. "Are you sure it's the right temperature?"

"Pretty sure. He said it got hot, it just would take a bit." Ladybug crouched down in front of the oven, peering at the thermometer dangling from one of the racks. "Yeah, it looks pretty good."

Chat Noir bounced up and down. "So can we start?"

"Of course." Ladybug unwrapped the first log and patiently waited for Chat Noir to do the same with his. "Okay, now we make slices, about so thick." She demonstrated. "And then the slices go on the cookie sheet."

Chat Noir tried his best. His tongue stuck out the side of his mouth as he tried to make even slices. Still, despite his best efforts, they always came out at least a _little_ crooked and always varying a little in size. When he compared it to Ladybug's cookies, which were as even as he imagined a professional's would be, it was kind of sad.

Still, cookies. Sugar. Chocolate. They might _look_ a little funny, but they were sure to taste good, especially since Ladybug had made sure that he put everything in in the correct amounts.

Ladybug had finished doing her tray while Chat Noir was still only halfway done with his own. She laughed when she saw the trouble Chat Noir was having.

"You're overthinking it," Ladybug said, setting her cookie sheet aside. "Just cut, Chat. It's easier to mess up if you think about it too much."

"I'm going to mess it up."

"You won't."

Chat Noir sent her a dubious look before turning his attention back to the task at hand. He cut a little faster and much to his surprise, his cuts got better. Not Ladybug-level good, of course- she had had far more practice than him, that much was obvious- but much better than what he had done before. Soon enough they were sliding the trays of cookies into the oven and setting another timer. Not long after that, the chocolate Sable cookies were cooling on the racks Ladybug produced from her pile of supplies and the sugar cookies were rolled out and getting cut. Chat Noir _ooh_ ed and _ahh_ ed over the assortment of cookie cutters before picking four to use.

"It works best if you kind of think about how the shapes would fit best together," Ladybug said before he could start cutting at random. "Then we don't have to waste so much dough."

Chat Noir paused. "I thought the dough just got re-used to cut out more."

"Yeah, but then too much extra flour gets into the dough if you do it enough times. If you cut smart the first time, you only have roll out the dough once or twice more and it doesn't get too full of flour. It messes up the taste."

"Oh."

"Just like that," Ladybug encouraged him a second later as Chat Noir started cutting tree-shaped cookies from the dough. "You're a fast learner."

Chat Noir practically purred from the praise.

It took another ten minutes to get all of the cookies cut out and on trays, and then Ladybug got to watch Chat Noir prowl impatiently around the room as he waited for the cookies to cook and then cool enough to frost. It was getting late, for sure, and they were both getting tired.

At least there wouldn't be any school the next day.

"We can get the chocolate cookies packed up so they're ready to go once the frosting is done," Ladybug suggested as Chat Noir flopped on the couch and eyed the timer, sighing for the fifth time in as many minutes. "And we could always come back tomorrow to finish frosting."

Chat Noir winced. "Actually, I have something going on tomorrow night. It's going to go pretty late."

Ladybug paused in the middle of putting the cookies into boxes. "Are you okay with staying out late tonight? Like, should you be going to bed so you can actually stay up tomorrow night?"

"I can sleep in tomorrow," Chat Noir assured her. He wouldn't be able to sleep in a _ton_ , of course, because his father didn't approve of him throwing off his sleeping schedule, even during school holidays, but he knew how to run on low sleep without making anyone suspicious when the situation called for it. It wasn't particularly fun, but being able to spend time with Ladybug was worth it.

Also, Ladybug with _cookies_. Definitely worth it.

As Ladybug finished putting the Sable cookies into boxes and set them aside, the symbol on the side caught Chat Noir's attention. He peered at it, curious, and then prowled closer to inspect them.

"Are these from the Dupain-Cheng bakery?" Chat Noir asked in surprise when he got closer and could confirm that was, indeed, Tom and Sabine's bakery logo. Why would Ladybug have boxes from the Dupain-Cheng bakery? That didn't make sense.

Ladybug jumped a little, as though she was startled, before her expression smoothed back out. "Yeah. I asked Marinette if I could have a few boxes. That's where I got the other equipment, since the bakery is so close and I knew they would have everything I needed."

Despite himself, Chat Noir's eyes flicked from her to the pile of the ingredients and back.

"And I brought those from my own home," Ladybug added, frowning at him. "I wouldn't take their baking supplies- and have you seen the _size_ of the bags they have there? The flour sacks can sometimes weigh as much as a large kid."

"You've carried more than that before, though." He knew she had. After all, Ladybug had flung him around more than once and she had never once had trouble with it. It might have just been the suits granting them extra strength- okay, it was almost _definitely_ the suits granting them extra strength- but it wasn't as though Ladybug would have bothered detransforming to bring stuff over to the school.

"We didn't need a giant bag of sugar to make two batches of cookies," Ladybug pointed out. "Or a giant bag of flour. There would be no point in wrestling something that large over here when I could get the smaller bags from my own kitchen."

"Fair enough."

"We can probably get the frosting in the actual piping bags now," Ladybug said as she put the last of the Sable cookies in the boxes and set them off to the side. "The bags are over there, and then we'll just be using a simple tip for all of them."

Chat Noir's eyes flew wide as he saw the assortment of tips in the case Ladybug had pointed to. They were in all sorts of sizes and shapes. "Wow. How do they use all of these tips? There's so many!"

"If we were in an actual bakery, there would be multiple tips for each color." Ladybug popped up at his side and fished through the bag with practiced fingers before pulling out a fairly simple tip. "And they're used for different kinds of decorations, on different kinds of treats. We'll be using this kind, since it's fairly basic and you can do more with it."

"There's just so _many_ ," Chat Noir breathed. "Wow. Okay. Yeah, it's probably a good thing we aren't using more. I wouldn't be able to make anything look good."

"That, and some of those would put on too much frosting at once. It would overwhelm the cookie."

Chat Noir grinned again as she handed him a spoon. "There's no such thing as too much frosting. Didn't we already go over this?"

Ladybug sighed and rolled her eyes. "There is if you want to be able to taste the cookie."

"Maybe we should have a few cookies first to make sure we actually _want_ to be able to taste them. I might have messed them up, after all."

Sighing, Ladybug reached over to the cooking tray, grabbed a cookie, and shoved it in Chat Noir's mouth before he could say anything more. His eyes flew wide in surprise before his expression smoothed out into pure bliss as he chewed. His eyes popped back open after a moment and he gave her a double thumbs up.

"See, you wouldn't want to drown that in frosting," Ladybug said in amusement as Chat Noir finished chewing. She was filling her second bag with a deep blue frosting. "Just a little touch on top for color. Otherwise they wouldn't be very festive, would they?"

Once all of the bags were filled, they could pull the cooled cookies out of the fridge. Ladybug showed Chat Noir how to frost things without it spurting out and covering the cookie in a messy blob. It took a couple cookies for him to catch on and get it right.

Well, _mostly_ right. He occasionally messed up and put on a _little_ more frosting than he intended.

"It's your face!" Chat Noir announced just over halfway through decorating. He held up a round cookie that had been adorned with what _might_ have been a red mask over blue eyes on a pale face. Blue hair had been substituted for black, since they didn't have any dark frosting. A crooked red line substituted for lips.

Ladybug didn't quite succeed in concealing her snort. "If you say so."

"What, like yours are bett- oh." Chat Noir's eyes widened as he caught sight of Ladybug's cookies. His weren't bad, really, but hers looked absolutely _gorgeous._ Delicate dots lined the edges of her stars, her Christmas trees had an almost needlelike texture, and the lines on her snowflakes were straight. In short, Ladybug's cookies wouldn't look out of place in a high-end bakery.

His probably wouldn't look out of place in a daycare art room.

"Very funny," Chat Noir sighed as Ladybug snickered at him. "I can do better. I just wasn't focused enough."

"If you say so," Ladybug teased. Her face sobered a bit as she glanced over at him. "Really, they're cute. I shouldn't be laughing. It's the thought that matters, after all- right?"

"Yeah, yeah." Chat Noir glanced back down at his cookies. They looked tasty, which was the important part, but he _really_ wanted to do better. "Teach me how to decorate like you do?"

Ladybug bit her lip and glanced at the clock but nodded anyway. "All right. I can do that."

So that was how, ten minutes, later, Chat Noir found himself frosting a cookie with Ladybug standing behind him, arms wrapped around him as she guided his hands to make a line of even dots over the short green lines of frosting that made up the base layer of the tree cookie they were decorating. It looked- well, not _fantastic_ , since they had had some trouble in the beginning figuring out how much pressure Ladybug had to put on Chat Noir's hands to make sure that he was squeezing the piping bag just enough but not too much, but it was better than the cookies Chat Noir had done by himself.

"You're a really fast learner," Ladybug said, sounding surprised as she pulled her hands back and let Chat Noir finish the piping on his own. "This looks pretty good."

"You're a fantastic teacher, my Lady." Even though it was getting late and Ladybug was obviously getting tired- their mistakes made her snicker every time, even though it wasn't _that_ funny- Ladybug had been patient as Chat Noir messed up his first few short lines and had given him _really_ good directions. "I'm almost at a professional level now. D'you think I could get hired on in a bakery as a decorator now?"

Ladybug's lips twitched upwards in amusement. "You wouldn't be allowed to eat the frosting or the cookies if you were working in a bakery."

Chat Noir reached over to dot a blob of frosting on Ladybug's nose. "Are you saying I don't have enough self-restraint to work in a bakery?"

Ladybug snorted as she returned to her own cookies. She hadn't bothered wiping the frosting off of her nose, Chat Noir noticed with amusement. It was cute.

Okay, yeah, they _definitely_ had to do this more often.

"You would get too distracted in a bakery," Ladybug decided. "You wouldn't be able to focus like a _professional_ would."

Chat Noir raised an eyebrow. "Oh? I can assure you, my Lady, that this cat wouldn't get distracted by anything if he had a job to do. I can work in a busy environment, cookies or no."

Ladybug raised an eyebrow and her lips quirked into a smirk. "Really."

Chat Noir mirrored her expression. "Uh-huh."

Ladybug pushed her finished cookie aside and grinned at Chat Noir. "Then let's see how you do, _chaton_. Decorate without getting distracted."

That grin on her face promised trouble for him, but Chat Noir chose to ignore it. After all, how much trouble could Ladybug get up to _frosting cookies?_ Sure, it was a tired, slightly giggly and silly Ladybug- he never would have guessed that composed, focused Ladybug was the kind of person who got silly when she was tired, it was _adorable_ \- but still. Cookie frosting.

"All right." Chat Noir turned his attention to the cookies they had left. There weren't a ton, thankfully, since otherwise it would take him _forever_ to finish. "I am 100% professional right now."

"Uh-huh."

"I _am_. And you are not allowed to distract me," Chat Noir said sternly, ignoring his partner's giggles as he started on a fresh cookie, carefully piping on the start of a lacy pattern. "I will make this amazing."

"You know, a true sign of being a professional is not _letting_ yourself get distracted," Ladybug said teasingly. "So it shouldn't matter what I'm doing, right?"

Chat Noir grit his teeth as Ladybug hummed her way around the kitchen. He was not going to get distracted, damn it, he was _not_ , no matter how close to him Ladybug got-

Wait.

"I can see you, you know," he ground out as Ladybug lifted a frosting bag up. "What are you doing?"

"Testing your ability not to get distracted," Ladybug sing-songed tauntingly. "You're failing miserably right now, by the way."

...okay, well, now she was waking up his competitive streak.

Chat Noir buckled down, focusing on his cookie and studiously ignoring the way Ladybug was holding up her frosting bag near his head. He was not going to fail miserably at acting like a professional decoration, even if Ladybug was poking the frosting bag at his face-

A light pressure at the edge of his mask almost made him jump. He was about to whirl around and ask Ladybug what exactly she thought she was doing when her quiet giggle reached his ears and he froze.

She was expecting him to do exactly that and then she could tease him about failing at ignoring distractions like he said he could.

He wasn't going to give her that satisfaction.

Taking a deep breath, Chat Noir turned his attention back to his cookie and squeezed on a white base layer. He could do this. He could do the lovely little lines Ladybug had shown him, even if Ladybug was going to insist on frosting him while he did it.

As Chat Noir piped a fairly straight line on the snowflake, Ladybug patterned his mask with a dozen green dots. As he turned the cookie to get a better angle, she added a blue line next to the dots. And as he started adding short lines and dots to his cookie, Ladybug added a scalloped line in white.

"I don't think these are professional working conditions," Chat Noir managed as Ladybug circled around him to repeat her design on the other side of his mask. She was _really_ difficult to ignore like this. "You're going to use up all of the frosting."

"Nah, we made a lot." Ladybug took a step back to admire her work before stepping forward again and reaching over him for the bag of purple frosting. "Keep on frosting, kitten. Or are you giving up already?"

"You aren't playing fair," Chat Noir complained, but he refocused on the cookie. It looked pretty good, despite Ladybug's attempts to distract him. "And I'll want the purple soon, just so you know."

The purple frosting hit the counter a moment later and Ladybug grabbed another bag to adorn him with instead.

Chat Noir sighed, resigned to his frosting-covered fate, and reached for the next cookie.

 

* * *

 

Chat Noir finally stumbled into his bedroom shortly after two o'clock, yawning as he detransformed. The cookies got hidden under his school things at his desk, and then he stumbled towards the bathroom, intent on washing up before he finally faceplanted into his pillow. It had been a long day, though definitely fantastic, but if he was going to get up before eight o'clock and actually be functional the next day...

Maybe there would be time for him to take a nap. Hopefully an akuma wouldn't pop up and snatch away his chance for some sleep.

It hadn't taken a terribly long time for him to finish frosting the cookies, even with Ladybug flitting around him and decorating his mask and cat ears with frosting. She had packed the frosted cookies into flat boxes and all of the cookie boxes into bags for carrying while he rinsed things off in the sink (apparently Marinette had offered up use of the bakery industrial washer/sanitizer as long as they got things rinsed first and up onto her balcony before they went home), and then they had parted for the night.

"I hope the cold doesn't hurt any of Marinette's parents' equipment," Adrien said to Plagg as he staggered towards the bathroom. He had wanted to knock on Marinette's balcony door to let her know that they were done with the mixers and bowls and other things, but Ladybug hadn't thought it was a good idea since it was so late. "I'd hate to be the reason for Marinette getting in trouble when she helped Ladybug set up the cookie baking."

"I'm sure she'll be fine," Plagg said, glancing at Adrien and immediately bursting into snickers. "And I'm sure the equipment was taken inside pretty quickly. The two of you weren't exactly _quiet_ , y'know."

Adrien winced. That...was true. Ladybug had decided that she just _had_ to get a picture of Chat Noir all covered in frosting and out in the snow, and then they had tussled for a minute over Ladybug's yo-yo as he tried to delete the picture and she tried to save it. She had won, naturally, but if Marinette hadn't been awake before they got there, she had probably woken up to that.

So much for showing their appreciation by letting Marinette sleep.

"I'd give her a few cookies to apologize, but she's probably up to her ears in cookies at this time of the year." Adrien flipped on the light in his bathroom, cringed at the bright light, and reached for his washcloth. As he did, though, a flash of color in the mirror caught his eye. Adrien glanced up, startled, and came face-to-face with the reflection of his own face covered in frosting. Apparently when his mask had melted away, the frosting on it simply ended up on his skin, where it was now drying.

Somehow he didn't think that buttercream frosting (no matter how fresh, or how tasty) fit into his skincare routine.

"She _marked_ you," Plagg sniggered, flying around Adrien's head with a chunk of cheese clutched in his paws. "That looks _hilarious_."

"I thought the transformation would get rid of it," Adrien said as he turned his head to inspect the scalloped line running across his cheekbone. The frosting was astonishingly even, even though he had doubtless been squirming and partway turned away from her. There were some parts that were slightly smeared and smooshed from when his hand accidentally brushed against the lines and dots, but Ladybug's designs were mostly intact.

Plagg was right. Ladybug had marked him.

 _And you marked her too,_ a voice in his head reminded him helpfully. He had snatched the red frosting and piped a crooked smiley face (plus a couple hearts, because she hadn't stopped him) on her mask before they started cleaning up. She hadn't wiped it off before they parted.

...hopefully she wouldn't go straight to bed without realizing there was frosting on her face.

Adrien sighed as he finally took a washcloth and ran it under his faucet before wiping off the first bit of buttercream. If it weren't so late (and if he hadn't almost made himself sick eating extra frosting), he would have swiped the frosting and eaten it instead of washing it off. The frosting took a little work to get off of the washcloth (he simply _couldn't_ just toss it in the laundry with the pastel stains on it, the housekeeping staff might investigate), and then it wasn't long before he was ready to sleep.

As Adrien slipped into bed, he couldn't stop the smile that had slid onto his face. He had started the holiday break positive that it would be absolutely miserable, with no Ladybug (or at least minimal Ladybug), no friends, and no Christmas spirit at his house beyond a thin facade. Instead, all of his friends had come to celebrate with him, his father had gotten him an _actual present_ , and best of all, he got to hang out with Ladybug like normal friends would.

It had been a very good holiday indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> As with most of my stories, this IS a one-shot and is therefore complete.
> 
> Please leave reviews! They make my day :)


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